The Egyptian authorities have released CCTV video of the Muslim Brotherhood attempt to take over 6 October bridge, showing vanguards engaged in stone-throwing and appearing to cause fires (molotov cocktails?). h/t EAworldview

Journalist @Beltrew also reported seeing the same events unfold. The Egyptian military allege that they simply repelled this attempt to take a key overpass that connects much of Cairo. But in the course of the defense of 6 October, they clearly used excessive force and killed dozens.

15 Responses

You do realize Dr. Cole that this exercise of assigning the blame to someone is going to get harder and harder.

Moreover, i tend to blame the one who does the shooting. Someone is being shot death, and the other is holding the gun, i blame the one holding the gun. I am sorry, maybe i am old fashion, but a rock against a machine gun, the machine gun wins 99.99% of the time. There is no balance here and we should not have a balanced analysis of this. The body count is clear: 70+ dead and 1000s of injured.

Let’s call it as it is: a massacre. The good news is this massacre won’t be the last.

That’s cute, Richard. After a few hundred people are massacred, you ask them what their plan is. I was not an MB supporter before this depraved revocouption. I have no idea what the MB’s stategy is. But all I have for you, Tamarrod, El Barradi, and al-Sissi is indignation and disgust. Richard, would you have asked the same question of the Native Americans after the Battle of Wounded Knee ?

The Native Americans were purely victims, decimated, defeated, and out of options. If you feel that the MB has fallen to a comparably pathetic state, then you are right that there is nothing left to discuss.

For others who see the situation more complexly, lets talk. Hundreds of MB people were killed this weekend. The potential for hundreds of thousands to die is very much in the balance. Choices are going to matter.

I’ve been asking MB supporters (via my TV set) the same question for several weeks: what is your plan? It is not an unreasonable question, but I hear few hints, but the implicit answer seems to be, “protest until Mursi is rightfully restored to office.”

The Assad protesters pursued such an absolutist goal two years ago. It did not go well, but at least they had a more plausible plan. They had a great deal of international support, relatively broad popular support, and no better alternatives to effect change.

Certainly the MB has been badly treated. But non-MB eyes their moral case is murky. The bullied other voices while in power. The likelihood that they will be able to participate meaningfully in politics is there – especially compared to the desperate prospects of the anti-Assad protesters.

The MB has options. If you desire a civil war, please explain how you think that is going to play out. If you want to protest peacefully and boycott elections, where is that likely to lead? Or, what are the prospects for participate in coming elections and begin to regain meaningful power and influence?

And so the PR nonsense begins. He said, she said, etc. etc. and son on. At this point, who cares? The bloodshed is only getting started. The situation is fast spiraling out of control. Think Indonesia and the communist purge. All the ingredients of a rock em, sock em bloodletting are in play: The Ikwahn are fanatically convinced they possess the truth and won’t back down. The military, now that its out of the barracks, will protect its privilege, has had enough. The worst is yet to come.

in a bizarre episode, most western journalists in the country were invited on a helicopter ride over Cairo’s Tahrir Square an hour before the massacre began. After the killings, the ministry of the interior denied it had used live ammunition on demonstrators, despite eyewitness accounts from journalists, including BBC correspondents, who were present during the killings.

“There must have been an injury every minute,” said Mosa’ab Elshamy, a photojournalist unaffiliated with the Brotherhood, who photographed the attack for half an hour at around 4am.

“I did not see any Morsi supporters with [firearms] at this point,” he added. “I hid behind a tree, and all I saw were Morsi supporters throwing stones, or fireworks, or throwing teargas canisters.”

steerpike

I think Noam Chomsky put it well as shown in this column a few days ago. Democracy is defined as following the dictates of corporations. Hence Morsi despite being elected in a free and fair election was not democratic while the military junta which overthrew him is democratic. The General who urged street protests and then ordered protestors shot in the head was promoting stability while those calling for the reinstatement of the elected civilian government are terrorists. Naturally the US refuses to call a military overthrow of an elected government a coup because the elected government was not to their liking.

Kenzy

Why are u guys only looking at one incident?its a bit unfair and distorting facts. The MB are responsible for all the attacks happening in Sinai and this is a part of our land and they will not let go until they get back to p

Kenzy

Why are u distorting facts and looking at one incident? Sinai massacres are the responsibility of the MB they let them in and they activitated them once morsi was ousted. 2. MBs are a minority in egypt. They compose only 10 percent if not less. So they should be joining the negotiation table if they really are a peaceful group as they claim 3. I do remember a suspect being shot in the us two months ago cuz he was accused of the terrorist attacks in the marathon and no one said anything. What is happening today is a media war and the MB are paying lots of money in this area. We’ve had real free men being killed by the MB regime over the past year and the international media turned a blind eye completely. Shame

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